George Washington University site dealing with each southern state's attempt to maintain a racial hierarchy in the face of the abolition of slavery. It was these local codes that led the Federal Government to take radical action leading to the military occupation of the South.

Online archive containing state records from the Freedmen's Bureau and further sections on murders/lynchings, labor and marriages that may be useful in exploring the impact and effect of Reconstruction.

Jefferson Long, ex-slave and Congressman for Georgia (for only 3 months in place of the incumbent who had been barred from office) gave only one speech during that time: addressing the problem of Klan intimidation in his state.

Rainey was the second African American appointed to the US Congress during Reconstruction. Here he offers a rebuttal to a speech by a New York Democratic Party Representative who had attacked the ability of South Carolina's black state congressmen (the myth that black politicians were lazy and corrupt found its zenith in the film Birth of a Nation in 1915).

Hiram Revels was the first African American appointment to Congress during Reconstruction. Here he attacks the ongoing segregation of schools in the District of Columbia (controlled by Congress). The speech is one of the first to attack school segregation, but also makes clear that segregation was in practice long before Plessy v Ferguson (1896) gave such measures the backing of the U.S. Supreme Court.

This speech begins with a celebration of the emancipation of slaves in the West Indies. But Douglass then moves on to consider why Reconstruction in the United States had not been a success. As Douglass puts it "Our reconstruction measures were radically defective." But why? How did Douglass explain the problems?

Biographies of every serving congressman, historical essays, biographies and artifacts charting the work of elected and appointed black politicians. The site is in this folder for the material on Reconstruction-Era figures, but it also covers legislators well into the twentieth century.